Friday, August 14, 2015

Jeb Steps in Bushshit Again (just stop talking about Iraq Dude,)

Oh Jeb....
.Jeb Bush on Thursday said “taking out Saddam Hussein turned out to be a pretty good deal,” but then added he didn’t want to get into hypotheticals about what would’ve happened had the U.S. (under his brother) not invaded in 2003.
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Taking out Saddam Hussein (which I was for in the run up to the war - even though I knew the "brains / funds behind 9/11" was a lie) was not and is not a pretty good deal. It was a bad idea with a disastrous execution of the idea .
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And, it is NOT Obama's fault we left - you lying sack of Bush. President George W Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the end of forces agreement. Not Obama. Simply repeating a lie doesn't make it true - no matter what Fox News says.
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The reality is, in retrospect, it was a spectacularly awful idea.
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Let's say the high end of Iraqi's Saddam Hussein death toll is correct (link). That means in 24 years he killed approximately 200,000 people (for comparison only - about 8,333 per year). . Mainly men with a few towns wiped out. That is horrible. That was, in fact, enough for me to say getting rid of him was the right thing to do.
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The American war against him ultimately killed 157,500 Iraqis - of which 20,000 were Saddam Hussein's defenders and ~ 15,000 insurgents after the Mission was Accomplished. So the war directly killed 128,000 Iraqi civilians (link). (for comparison only - about 16,000 civilians per year). That is a lot of death for civilians.
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Map of "Internally Displaced People (IDP) due tot he "Good DeaL" of the Bushes. Select to enlarge. (form vox.com)

Over a million people were forced out of their homes by the war or the winners (see map above). That is not a "good deal".
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The war also destroyed the country's infrastructure, leaving millions without power, air-conditioning, drinking water or food. Iraqi is primarily a desert, so again, not a "good deal".
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Removing Saddam Hussein also removed Iran's counterweight in the region, strengthening the Islamic Republic's political and military heft. Not a "good deal".
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The resulting Iraqi government is not interested in Sunni areas, allowing ISIS to gain a land hold in the region.
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The current Iraqi government, along with Iran, supports Syria's Bashar al-Assad - who of course we are fighting.
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So was "taking out Saddam Hussein a pretty good deal"? Sure. In the world where Trump is qualified to be President, your brother did no wrong, Florida is the bell weather of good government, Terri Schivo was judged to be fully competent from a Congressman via video link and where we will be greeted as liberators with roses and cheers - it was a great deal.
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Idiot.